Day 4: White Roses at that

It's a cold start. Still the hotel is adjacent to Derby bus station. And the Chesterfield bus is bang on time

A pleasant ride through Derby's former mining communities, Ripley, Alftreton, Clay Cross etc. And you can see the heritage in the people, stocky, well-built men with faces of leather and accents just a tad less rounded than their city counterparts.

Despite the sun coming out there are no real photo opportunities, just a pleasant meander on roads new to us. Still we pull into Chesterfield almost on time, just a couple of minutes late.

30 minutes wait here, so a quick mooch and toilet break in the small shopping centre adjacent. Mainly to escape the cold wind. We get back to the bus stop 10 minutes early and the bus is ready and waiting.

Yes, the hood was needed!

Onwards, to the real North. Sheffield with this bit of street art

To be honest there were others and better but it's not easy from a bus!

But Sheffield is not real North. How about Barnsley? We didn't see anything of the town, which I'll always associate with Kes, but moved quickly on at the interchange to catch the bus to proper North - Leeds!

One thing I hadn't expected was to be sat on a regular bus overtaking lorries on the motorway! Both the bus to Barnsley and the one on to Leeds used the M1 as part of the route.

Leeds will be a nice city when it's finished. Road works are making the city centre a real mess and our onward bus requires a bit of a hike through Kirkland market, up the shopping area, past Harvey Nicks to the theatre area. We've a little wait so we pop into a hotel bar advertising afternoon tea or coffee and cake for that special occasion. So we were a tad nonplussed when the request for two coffees came back with the reply "Instant alright?". Two halves of mediocre but local beer later we find the bus waiting

Boy, is it tedious getting out of Leeds to Headingley and beyond! Stop/start traffic all the way. But Otley looks well worth a visit sometime. The bus had a heating problem, the heating fan was very noisy; so it was distinctly chilly by the time we got to Ilkley. Despite my ears feeling the cold, tradition dictated the time was not right for putting my hat on!

Remember that tedious stop/start our of Leeds? It was amazing that the bus rocked into Skipton dead on time, despite detouring to every village en route.

A quick taxi ride to the Holiday Inn on the outskirts (we'd have walked but it was quite chilly, and uphill!) and then bus back to town.

The Early Hours micropub shuts at 8 so a quick pre-prandial pint there before the obligatory birthday dinner. Liz will hate me for this photo because she doesn't look happy (she was, honestly) but the one with her smiling has an horrid colour balance

Both food and wine were excellent!

Happy Birthday Liz!

Here's the 96 miles